Morgan, Charles Leroy (1840–1924)

Charles Leroy Morgan, Confederate lieutenant colonel, son of Hiram and Rebecca (Gillespie) Morgan, was born in Bastrop County, Texas, in August 1840. When the Civil War began, he joined the Eighth Texas Cavalry, known as Terry's Texas Rangers. He served as a lieutenant with the command in Tennessee but returned to Texas in December 1861. When the Eighteenth Texas Cavalry was organized in the spring of 1862, he enlisted in a company raised by his brother Hiram and was elected regimental major. The Eighteenth Texas was among those Confederate units captured at Arkansas Post in January 1863, but Charles Morgan was not with the regiment. By September 1862 he had command of an independent squadron of around 150 men. He was popular and talented, and his squadron eventually grew to a regiment. His command was attached to William Henry Parsons's Texas Cavalry Brigade and served with distinction in Arkansas, Missouri, and Louisiana. The war ended before Morgan received official recognition of his regiment from Richmond; thus he was paroled a lieutenant colonel at the age of twenty-four, at Houston. About 1867 he married Mary A. Duvall, and they had six daughters and one son. After the war Morgan engaged in the merchandising business and was active in the Parsons' Brigade Association of Confederate veterans. He died on March 11, 1924, in Runnels County, Texas.